Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca, the leader of the Liberal party, announces his resignation at the Victoria palace, the Romanian government headquarters, in Bucharest, Romania, June 12, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)
BUCHAREST – Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca announced his resignation on Monday and said he expected the country's new government to be inaugurated "by the end of the week."
"Today has come the moment when I end my activity as prime minister of Romania. In this way … at the coalition level, the procedures for carrying out the rotation begin," he said at the Victoria Palace, the government's headquarters.
Under an agreement reached by the members of the ruling coalition that was sworn in in November 2021, the country will rotate its prime minister every 18 months before the next parliamentary elections, which is expected in December 2024
"We proposed to have the government inaugurated by Thursday, and in this way we can continue to deal with the issues that are priorities, both through the government program and for everything that the government of a country means," he said.
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The rotation should have taken place on May 25 but the teachers' strike in the country delayed it. Ciuca had pledged to resolve the labor conflict before leaving office.
Trade unions in the country decided on Monday to suspend their general strike after the government's newest offer to hike teachers' wages.
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Under an agreement reached by the members of the ruling coalition that was sworn in in November 2021, the country will rotate its prime minister every 18 months before the next parliamentary elections, which is expected in December 2024. Ciuca of the center-right National Liberal Party will now hand the post to Marcel Ciolacu, president of the Social Democratic Party.
